How To Function
by PagetPaulson
Summary: They were supposed to be together forever; until the end of time.


It wasn't as if they hadn't known what the human race had done to their Earth was going to cause something as drastic as the ice caps melting or the destruction of Emily's favorite season, but for it to come so quickly was surprising.

The national announcement was made a day prior, but due to their connections the Hotchner family had known for almost a week.

They told their friends, they told their families, and they told the rest of their coworkers so they could tell everyone they knew and could get to their safe places. For most of the BAU team they had nowhere else to go, so Dave had been generous enough to let everyone travel with him up to his cabin at the top of Eager's Mountain so they would have the best chance at safety.

The oceans had overflowed.

Grabbing once of the last life jackets in the pile, Emily handed it to her husband. "Did you find the protein bars?"

The older man gave a distracted nod of the head. Dave had an entire cellar up at the cabin filled with what they needed, at least for a little while, but they were doing what they could to help. "Protein bars, water bottles, canned fruit, the first aid kit," he listed off.

"Life jackets," Emily continued for him, "blankets, guns, knives."

Hotch took what Emily had in her hands and put it in the bags with the rest of their things. "And the rest is upstairs." He turned to her and gently touched her hand. "Come on. We need to get going if we're going to get Jack and Haley and get up to the cabin by nightfall."

The brunette woman gave the smallest of smiles at the words that left her husband's mouth. She was scared, but being with the man she married calmed her more than she thought anything could.

"Are you ready?"

Taking a few candles from the bottom of the bin they had been rummaging through, Emily handed them to the older man. "I think we're good."

Their clothes were in the car, the trunk was filled to the roof with the supplies they had gathered, and the tank was filled with gas. They couldn't have been any more prepared than they were.

Emily cursed as she dropped one of the flashlights, bending down to pick it up when she heard voices outside their home.

Frowning, Hotch looked along with his wife over to the window near the top of the basement's staircase. They had recently soundproofed the basement for Jack, the ten year old wanting to learn how to play the drums and his parents not wanting to hear it every second of the day. "Who is that?"

"Sounds like Mrs. Peters." Emily handed the rest of her things to Hotch before climbing to the second stair and looking out the window.

Water was already flooding their yard, the muffled screams from the next door neighbor forcing Emily's eyes over to the older woman's back porch.

She started running away from the yard and toward their house, Emily able to just see the fear in her eyes as she ran to them before a wave of water carried her off. "Aaron!"

The older man dropped everything, running over to his wife to catch her before she fell to the ground.

"It's already here," she almost cried, rushing to stand. Her dark eyes moved from window to window, the water threatening to break the bulletproof windows they had put into every floor of their home as it surrounded them. "It wasn't supposed to happen yet."

Hotch never felt a pain so hot enter his chest until now. As his eyes followed Emily's, body jolting at the cars and people crashing into their home, a heat similar to the one that entered his stomach when he and Emily were ready for bed, filled the center of his chest. Except this time, he was scared.

He knew it was their fault, it was all of their faults. They didn't listen when scientists told them it would pay off to use solar panels, for them it was too much of a down payment, or when they said to recycle, they had stopped trying when Jack never remembered to put the plastic bottles in the separate can, or when they were told to stop their gas consumption.

They had killed themselves.

His heart thudded against the cage his bones created around it; their town was gone, their friends and their family.

Jack was gone.

"Aaron?" Emily turned, her hand grabbing his.

He could hear the tears threatening to break through her words, and he pulled her close to him.

"What do we do?"

For the first time in his life, Hotch had no answer to give her. Nothing he had been trained for in his life prepared him for a situation like this. "What can we do?" he answered, his words monotone as his wife wrapped herself up in his heat.


End file.
